Prometheus Staffer Brandy Doyle participated in a panel discussion at New America Foundation (NAF) on Community Media: A Full Spectrum Future.  Details about the event and a link to the video transcript can be found here.

As Congress takes a break to run for re-election, the press is spotlighting LPFM and the Local Community Radio Act which is still struggling to make its way through the Senate.

Let's Expand Low-Power FM
Houston Chronicle, October 2, 2010

Earlier this summer, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Local Community Radio Act, which would expand LPFM to many more communities. The Senate is now considering the bill (SB 592) ... From the Third Ward to the Heights, from Montrose to Denver Harbor and Acres Homes, we could sure use LPFMs in our neighborhoods. They put church groups, immigrant voices and local policy debates on the air. Independent music and culture thrive there, and studios are a gathering place for neighbors. LPFM stations do more than provide relief in times of crisis, though this is a vital service as well.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/7228828.html

The History and Future of Hyper-Local Radio
Atlantic Monthly, October 5, 2010

Part of what is so interesting about media made by community members is its potential to challenge what we think radio "is." Our present-day understanding of radio has to a great degree crystallized around the massive network configuration -- both commercial and noncommercial, like National Public Radio. Yet LPFM shows that technology's contours can shift over time based on ongoing renegotiation between players like regulators, corporations, advocates and everyday citizens. Far from being a moribund medium, radio can have an alternate future -- one that actually reawakens long-forgotten debates that were "settled" shortly after the dawn of broadcasting.

Read more: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2010/10/the-history-and-future-of-hyper-local-radio/64058/

Today there are close to 1000 more noncommercial, locally-programmed community radio stations on the air in the US than a decade ago. The reason for this is the low-power FM radio service created by the Federal Communications Commission in 2000. While Congressional intervention cut the new service off at the knees at the end of that year, the creation of LPFM is an important event that provided crucial recognition for the value of hyper-local community radio.

Tuesday, June 27th, 2006

Lawmakers, Regulators Face Key Decisions on Future of Media Ownership, Internet, Public Access, Low Power Radio

Lawmakers and regulators in Washington are in the midst of making a number of decisions that could affect the nation's media ownership laws, the future of the Internet, public access television and the expansion of low power FM radio stations. We speak with Hannah Sassaman of the Prometheus Radio Project which successfully sued the FCC three years ago in an effort to block the new media ownership rule changes. [includes rush transcript] Lawmakers and regulators in Washington are in the midst of making a number of decisions that could affect the nation's media ownership laws, the future of the Internet, public access television and the expansion of low power FM radio stations.